James R. Rosendall, 44, of Grand Rapids, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Avern Cohn to 11 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiring to commit bribery, United States Attorney Terrence Berg announced today. In addition to the custody sentence, Rosendall was also order to pay a fine of $200,000.

Berg was joined in the announcement by Andrew G. Arena, Special Agent In Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Maurice Aouate, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service.

Rosendall was the former president of Synagro of Michigan, a subsidiary of Synagro Technologies. His duties included obtaining the approval of the City of Detroit to process and dispose of the City’s wastewater.

United States Attorney Berg said: “If a businessman seeking a contract with the City knowingly allows third-parties to bribe public officials to get that contract, this is a crime that deserves prison, which is what Mr. Rosendall got. In this case, Mr. Rosendall’s significant cooperation and assistance in the investigation and prosecution of others resulted in a lower sentence than he would ordinarily would have received for complicity in such a bribery scheme.”

The investigation of this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigations Divisions of the IRS and U.S. EPA. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark Chutkow and R. Michael Bullotta.